KASUR: Despite establishment of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the Hussain Khanwala scandal and removal of four police officers, the affected people have threatened that they will go for a long march, if the SP investigation is not transferred.

The villagers and their supporters including Mobeen Ghaznavi and Advocate Latif Sara on Saturday held a press conference at the Kasur Rest House, where the JIT is holding an inquiry and recording the statements of victims and witnesses.

Instead of sympathising and dispensing justice, they alleged, police were raiding the houses of the affected people and their relatives and asking them to withdraw their cases. They said SP Investigation Nadeem Abbas was protecting the accused and harassing the victims. They demanded that SP Abbas should be suspended till Monday otherwise they would march on Islamabad and reject the JIT.

More than two dozen people got their statements recorded with the JIT which provided shuttle service to facilitate the villagers. The JIT also sent 45 video clips to the forensic lab for verification.

On Saturday, 10 of the victims got their medical certificates from the DHQ hospital. The Ganda Singh police registered 10 cases earlier on Thursday and claimed to have arrested 18 accused including a lawyer.

A few days earlier, delay in giving findings of the first seven FIRs in a JIT headed by the SP investigation (established by the RPO on July 7) prompted the villagers to take to the street. Several police officials including two DSPs and some of the protesters were injured in a clash.

During the visit of IG Mushtaq Sukhaira, the villagers had demanded the removal of the DPO and the SP investigation.

RPO: Regional Police Officer Shahzad Sultan also held a press conference at the DPO Office later in the day, saying he had recommended inclusion of a cyber crime expert in the JIT to technically support the case of the victims. He said the inquiry was under way regarding the corruption of certain police officials in the child abuse case and those found guilty would be punished.

The RPO denied any victim was being pressured to withdraw or reconcile. He said the cases had been registered on all the applications received so far.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2015

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